After almost an entire week of chaos, I have at last finished all the pictures, and set them into place. Some of the text will have to be added through the weekend though. The weekend will also be chaotic, especially tomorrow, but for a whole other reason....
La Vache Qui Rit [trade : cheese : O/S - France] "Olympic Sports" stickers (1988) 12/19
Today in 1940, this little long eared chap, Bugs Bunny was born, or rather first appeared under the name of Bugs Bunny, because he had been on screen before, but on those occasions his character was not only un-named, but considered a hare - in fact, his 1940 debut was in a short Tex Avery cartoon called "A Wild Hare".
He caught on quick, perhaps because there were many things to like about him, he is flippant, funny, and often quite cheeky, and he walks on his hind legs like a human, crossing the boundaries between the species. He also talks (with a Brooklyn accent). Of all the cartoon characters around the world, he has appeared in the most films of any - not counting his television, comic, and internet appearances. And according to the Trading Card Database / Bugs Bunny he appears on over three hundred and fifty cards. Though I am not sure I agree that the first of these was in 1974... so over to you to find an earlier one.
Anyway, it is no wonder that Warner Brothers have him as their official mascot - nor that he has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
So to those cards. His first set appears to be "Happy Birthday Bugs", which was issued in 1990 to mark his, wait for it, fiftieth birthday ! This was a set of 216 cards but it looks like under half of that featured his character.
Another set or three, which seems to have a cult following is Upper Deck`s "Comic Ball". These are ostensibly baseball cards, but with a difference, as the actual players are accompanied on many of the cards by cartoon characters. I think this is a set which will be very sought after in years to come, so if you get one, wrap it and put it away safely.
This year, at the age of eighty-four we are delighted to report that he is still going strong - and entertaining a whole new generation of cartoon fans. And long may that last
Changechecker [trade : coins : UK] "Trading Cards" (2016) Un/??
Jeremy Fisher, Tabitha Twitchit, and little Peter Rabbit - they would not exist if it were not for Helen Beatrix Potter, who was born today in 1866.
Her family came from Manchester, but she was born in London, where her father had trained as a Barrister and settled down. He did not make his money in that way though, being a bit of a wizard at predicting the rise and fall of the stock market. Her parents were also artists though, and her father had an interest in photography. Both parents were also interested in nature, and encouraging of the fact that children like to have pets.
They summered in Scotland, near the river Tay, and then, when Beatrix was sixteen, they started going instead to the Lake District, especially the area around Lake Windermere. It was here that she met the Vicar of Wray, who would later become the secretary of a new countryside organisation called The National Trust. She found him, and his tales of the rural ways, completely fascinating, and though she had always kept a journal, she started to become more scientific in what she wrote.
It was a letter, written in September 1893, that she first wrote, to a friend, about four little rabbits, one of whom was Peter. This became the rough outline of her first book, published in October 1902 as "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - and it was followed the next year by two books "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" and "The Tailor of Gloucester", both of which had also started life as letters, to friends, and been subsequently enlarged.
In 1905 she wanted to became engaged, but her parents objected, for her suitor was of lower class. A month later he was dead, of pernicious anaemia. It appears that she had already used some of the money from her books and a family inheritance to buy a property in the Lake District where the couple were to live. Now it became a place to escape her family, who had so objected to her future. This was Hill Top Farm near Sawrey. She also started to buy more land, using a solicitor called William Heelis. They married in 1912. She continued to write, and become a part of the local village and also to buy land. The couple were married for thirty years until she died in 1943. On her death it was revealed that she had left almost all her land to the National Trust - and that remaining, to be occupied and used by her husband, was also theirs when he died. Sadly that was only two years later.
Now this card is not strictly cartophilic, though they are given away, and swapped through facebook, but they do turn up a lot in mixed boxes of cards. There are also "Golden" cards to find. They started being issued in 2013, and the company is an official distributor for the Royal Mint. You start by buying a kit, which brings you an album with cards for each of the commemorative 50p and £2 coins that are in current circulation, plus a list of all the coins of those denominations that have been issued before that time. The cards tell you the date and country of issue, and excitingly the name of the artist who designed the front and back picture. It also tells you how many of those coins were made so that you can spot immediately whether the coin in your hand has a possibility of being more valuable. They do not list current value, wisely, as this changes very frequently.
Anyway, the next time you find one of these in your odds box, you will know what it is !
Anglo Confectionery Ltd [trade : confectionery : UK - Halifax] "Space" (1967) 36/66 - ANG-320 : ANF-5
Onwards, and upwards, because today in 1958 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - or N.A.S.A. - was created. The first interesting fact is that they are not a government agency, they are independent, so, as such, they are responsible only for the civil space programme, which is how they can use civilians, not military personnel. It was also helpful, because it did not immediately suggest that the spacecraft were anything to do with planned invasions of other countries.
Before N.A.S.A. there was another body, called N.A.C.A, which was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, this was also a civilian operation, but it had been started in 1915, and as the name suggests was primarily for aviation, not inter-planetary travel. There was another reason why it was decided to change, though, and that was because they had long supported, and been involved with, the armed forces, latterly with experiments in guided missiles and rockets. These, once Sputnik had been launched by the Russians, were, at first, moved over to the Navy, and to a new unit, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, who launched the first ever satellite, Explorer 1, in February 1958.
Perhaps fearful that the growing interest in space would come to be tainted by the military usage, it was Dwight D. Eisenhower who signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act in July of that year, and split the research into military and civilian bodies, paving the way for the first civilian space programme, in October 1958.
These cards were issued almost a decade after N.A.S.A. had been created. Some of the prophecies on them did not come true, and some did, most spectacularly their belief that Pluto could not be as far as the solar system went, and that there may be other even more distant worlds still undiscovered in the depths of space - though the discovery of those came fifty years after the cards were released.
Now some of these cards credit N.A.S.A, but I have scanned one which does not. Never mind, the title will suffice as a link. No time to hunt for longer!
This set is first described in our original British Trade Index part two, as :
SPACE. Lg. 89 x 64. Nd. (66) ... ANF-5
It`s not too dissimilar in our updated version, being :
SPACE. 1967. 89 x 64. Nd. (66) ... ANG-320
A. & B. C. [Trade : bubble gum : UK] "Car Stamp Albums" (1971) Un/114 - AAB-100 : HA-2 : ABF-42.5 :
Took ages to find anything to celebrate on this day, then I found that it was the tenth anniversary of the Festival of the Unexceptional, at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire.
This is basically a celebration of the standard cars that the general public drove between 1969 and 1999, nothing souped up, or altered to make them sportier, or faster, just the general runabout that took us to school and to work.
It is sold out now, but mark the date in your diary for next year. There is also a competition element, full details of which appear on the website.
So here we have the Ford Cortina, in the Estate version. These were announced in February 1967, which is a bit outside the age range of the concours, but the Cortina was the best selling British car of the 1970s, so if you have a later one you are in with a shot. There were two engine sizes, the 1300 DeLuxe (showing here) and the 1500 Super Model, though you could pay to upgrade the DeLuxe and get a bigger engine. However the front seats only reclined if you got the Super Model. Oh the choices !
Actually the first ever non-estate Cortina was launched in 1962, and it has been designed by the same designer as the ill fated American Ford Edsel - who, reputedly, had been sent to England as a punishment. Now despite the car being launched in 1962 the name comes from 1956, when Cortina D`Ampezzo hosted the Winter Olympics. It also seems odd that their advertising used several Cortinas tackling the Cortina Olympic bobsled course, when there had been the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley USA in between, and Ford, after all, was an American company.
By the way if you are a Ford Cortina fan, and a cartophilst, you will undoubtedly already possess the two sets issued by Golden Era - the 2007 "Cortina Mk.1 1962-1966" and the 2002 "Ford Cortina Story 1962-1982". If not, they are not that expensive, and Christmas fast approaches !
This set appears in our original British Trade Index part three as :
Car Stamp Albums. Four-page folders, 90 x 63, inscribed "Book 1" to "Book 21". Each with space for five adhesive motor car stamps, issued in anonymous sheets of six perforated stamps, in wrapper inscribed "A. & B.C. Car Stamps Bubble Gum. ... ABF-42.5
Thanks, at this point, to Mr. Sayle, for working out the complex mathematical task of adding up all these numbers to make the total in the set. Though now I have found time to retrieve my updated British Trade Index, the text in there reads :
CAR STAMPS. 1971. 48 x 37. Adhesive. Unnd. (114). In perforated sheets of six, in wrapper with "A. & B.C.Car Stamps Bubble Gum". Anonymous outside special 8-page folder albums inscribed "Book 1" to "Book 21", each with make of car, and spaces for 5-6 stamps. See HA-2 ... AAB-100
There is something else that is not mentioned in either of these books, because if you look at these stamps on internet auction sites you will see that the sheets obviously had a border, but that some collectors, like the previous owner of this one, chose to trim the stamps closer to the edge and remove the blank margin. Our stamp was at the top of the sheet, hence the non-perforated top, but looking online showed me that actually it was at the corner, and once did have a thick blank border to the right hand side.
Chocolat Pupier [trade : chocolate : O/S - France] "L`Europe" (1930) Un/252
Going a long way back now, right to 1588 and the Spanish Armada. However though this was not the date they sailed, this was a turning point, in more ways than one.
We called it the Armada, just as the Spanish called our Navy an Armada, because Navy in Spanish translates to Armada. It does not mean superior force, or even "Invincible" as this card says. Actually the Spanish called it "Grande y Felicisma Armada" - or "Great and Lucky Navy", which is what they hoped it would be, and it left Lisbon in May 1588, under the command of the 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had been appointed by King Philip II of Spain despite the fact that the Duke had no prior Naval experience, and very little military experience either. However he was related to Ferdinand II of Aragon, being his great-great grandson, and he was also a very staunch Catholic.
He was also given a plan - to sail up the English Channel, as a forbidding force of ships to demonstrate their power, but not to attack, just to sail past. Then he would meet up with the Duke of Parma in Flanders, and the two of them would sail back with even more ships, and invade Britain. When they had done that, they were to overthrow the Queen, and declare the land to be Spanish, at the same time making the official religion Catholic. There were a few other things too but they would be tackled later.
The plan did not take into account that the English fleet were based in Plymouth, almost at the start of the English Channel, nor that the Spanish galleons were showy, but larger and not as speedy as the British ships, who lay in wait and allowed the Spanish ones to come ever closer.
As the sun rose on the 31st of July, the English fleet went into action and attacked the Spanish fleet just outside Plymouth, coming at them from above and below. The Spanish were renowned as close combat fighters, but the British had superior weapons with better aim, which did not allow the Spanish to get close enough to fight from ship to ship.
If the 7th Duke had listened to his crew he might have made it, for they advised him to redirect and moor up in the Isle of Wight. Instead he pressed ahead, with the British ships in hot pursuit, and though most of the ships reached as far as Calais they were then attacked under cover of darkness and scattered.
I am pretty sure that there are lots of cards featuring the Armada but all I have come up with so far is R. & J. Hill`s "Medals and Decorations" card 46/68 - John Player`s (etc) "Arms and Armour" card 33/50 - and Wills "Historic Events" card 27/50. The Hill card is a very good one to include, because it tells us that this medal was the first ever medal awarded by a monarch to men at war.
These little stamps were to be stuck in an album, nine per page, and it looks like each page was a different country. England was page 4, as it says on the card. The page of cards are the Royal Standard, King George V against Tower Bridge, a map of the United Kingdom, the Houses of Parliament, William the Conqueror, this card of the Spanish Armada, Cromwell, the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo. The facing page is "Angleterre-Irlande". Only Germany merits a two page spread.
Ogden`s [tobacco : UK - London & Liverpool] "General Interest" Tabs Series B (1902) 124/200 - O/90 [RB.15/90]
Another awkward one, I had the date but not the card, but then I asked about and got this and it actually says that London Bridge "was opened for traffic in 1831" - though not that this event happened today.
The problem was that there are plenty of cards of London`s bridges, but what is now thought of as London Bridge is the one by the Houses of Parliament, and that is really Westminster Bridge.
At first, and I mean when the Romans arrived, Londinium Bridge was just an impermanent structure that forded the mighty Thamesis, though the bridge was upgraded in about 50 A.D. by sinking boats into the soil and fixing a roadway across the top of them.
The first real London Bridge was the one with all the shops and housing pressed together along it, in danger of toppling backwards into the water, which Medieval Londoners fought across in their carts, or walked across on foot.That remained, despite fires, and accidents, albeit growing more dilapidated and dangerous, until our bridge, showing here, came along - but not until the nineteenth century.
The first stirrings of a new bridge came in 1799, when a competition was announced to design a new bridge on that site. This must have caused much panic through the remaining occupants, and even more so when they saw the designs coming in. One of these was by Thomas Telford, whose bridge was fairly revolutionary, a single arch, in iron, but it lost out through needing more space for access and approach than was given, especially at the Southwark end which was already pretty overcrowded. The winning design was by John Rennie which was built a hundred feet away from the original site, but sloped and rose more gently, because the weight was spread over five arches not one. it was also a more traditional material, granite.
The work began to clear and prepare the site in 1824 and in June 1825 the foundation stone was cemented into place. It took until 1831 to actually be ready to travel across and then the old bridge was demolished - it had been in use all that time. The delay was caused by building the access and approach roads, something not helped by the fact that they were in a different place. Perhaps if the old bridge had been demolished first this would have been less trouble, and cost. It ended up costing two and a half million pounds (in their money, not adjusted to today`s rates)
Today, in 1831, saw the official opening took place, attended by King William IV and his Queen Adelaide, who ate a lavish banquet in a pavilion which was set up on the bridge. A lasting memorial can be found in the fact that one of the approach roads is called King William Street. It was an amazingly popular crossing, and that was its undoing. First it was insufficient for the amount of traffic that wanted to travel over it, so it was widened. However this changed the dynamics and the bridge started to sink. It was slow, but steady, and so a new bridge had to be built.
That started construction in 1967, slightly away from our bridge, and it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in March 1973. It is slightly more utilitarian, but stronger, as it is a box construction made of steel girders and concrete.
To our card chat and a quick summary of the Tabs issues. These were issued between 1900 and 1903, and "Tabs" was the brand name. The fronts were printed by letterpress in black and white, and they are very similar to those issued with the "Guinea Gold" brand, though they are well marked so it is easy enough to tell the difference for the most part. The "B" Series was described in our original Ogden reference book as :
90. 200. B Series. Numbered on backs. Backs inscribed "Packets of Ogden`s Tab Cigarettes contain photos of General Interest", with descriptive text, and "This series contains 200 Photographs". Duplicated numbers :-
Nos. 35-37. Mr. Arthur Roberts. All three numbers are found with three different portraits ; (a) white trousers (b) Pipe in mouth (c) Plume in hat
Nos. 163 and 173. Mdlle. Anna Held. Both numbers are found with two different portraits : (a) With large hat (b) No hat, hair over shoulders
Nos. 166 and 174. Mdlle. Paulette Filliaux. Both numbers are found with two different portraits : (a) Facing front, flowers at waist (b) Back view, basket in arms
From above the water to below the ground, for we close with today in 1870, when the first Tube Railway was opened in London.
We have cheated a bit because this card almost certainly shows the Paris Metro, but it also says Royal Windsor, and time was short. The tale is also very convoluted, so I must be brief.
Now we are not actually referring to the Underground Railway that you think we are. What we are talking about is an actual sealed tube, six feet in diameter, that only opened at the start and the finish with no stations or access points in between. Not my idea of a fun time.
But today, in 1870, such a thing was opened beneath the River Thames in London. Passengers, and what brave ones they must have been, descended in steam operated lifts and got aboard a twelve seat carriage which was pulled along by a cable, powered by a steam engine.
It started, as usual, with complaints about the ever growing traffic in the city. This was then mooted as an alternative, and even resulted in the setting up of the The City Terminus Company, with plans to extend to other areas if demand required such. There was even a plan for a tube from Farringdon to King`s Cross, but they could not get any of the railway companies to come aboard, as it were. However, two years later, the Metropolitan Railway applied to build their own Underground Line, Paddington to Kings Cross, using a very similar system, though, in the end, this did not exactly pan out, for many reasons, and it was decided to convert the idea of a sealed tube into a dig, build, and rebury, with openings where added reinforcement of the soil and tube could take place.
But back to our tube. Work commenced in February 1869 and opened on August the 2nd, 1870. Unfortunately, the people who had been so keen to travel were only there at the very start, and the costs of the building of the tunnel, the tube, and the train, were pretty huge, not to mention the running costs. So in December 1870, just a few months after their opening, they were either faced with closure or change. Then they had a brainwave. They removed the railway and everything to do with it, as well as the lifts, and fitted stairs, then allowed people to walk through the tunnel. This was very popular, and a great novelty, until 1894 when a new novelty, Tower Bridge, opened just a few hundred yards downstream.
After that the tunnel`s days were numbered. It closed in 1898.
This week's Cards of the Day...
... looked at National Marine Week, which runs from the 27th of July until the 11th of August. It is an annual celebration in conjunction with The Wildlife Trust.
This year’s theme is all to do with our personal, and our island`s connection to the sea. If you go to the official website there is also a map for you to add your own stories.
They also remind us that there are things we can do to keep the beaches and the oceans clean, by recycling, not dropping litter, and using less plastic, though as we know it is not the using of plastic that is the problem, it is the throwing of it away.
So our clue cards this week were :
Saturday, 20th July 2024
Anyway here we have David Seaman, and his surname gave us the first clue to the "Marine" theme. Now at one time this meant simply a man who went to sea, a mariner, or a sailor, but at some time it came to be classified as a rank, that being any of the three ranks immediately below "petty officer" in the Navy or in the Coast Guard.
Today it seems to have changed again, to be any enlisted man who ranks below a petty officer. Perhaps that is due to the "man" element being less P.C. than it would have been. In fact in today`s Navy you start as an Able Rate, or Rating, then become a Leading Hand, and then a Petty Officer, which is kind of the first step into being an officer
I cannot find these cards in any of our reference books, and I have tried under Barratt, Bassett, and Trebor Bassett. Even in the Football Cartophilic Info Exchange the only set listed is Bassett & Co. - World Cup Stars (1974). So if you find it, or know of it, please let us know
The cards themselves say "The information on this card was compiled up to February 1997" so the set must have been issued shortly after.
And if anyone can supply more information on the set, please do.
Sunday, 21st July 2024
This is what everyone thinks of when they think of the sea, a boat. And as an island nation we soon gained a reputation for being good sailors, though the truth is that we could only use a boat if we needed to leave.
It was also the only way for any other countries to invade us.
Amazingly the first incarnation of an English Naval Force was only devised in the twelfth century. As for the proper Royal Navy, this began in 1546, when Henry VIII formed a Navy Royal, of twenty-four ships. Sadly it was abandoned, and only reestablished in 1660, when King Charles II came to power - and, amazingly, five years later he could boast of having a hundred and two ships that he could call on.
This set is completely anonymous, but if you look in the "Z" section of our original World Tobacco Issues Index you will find it listed under overseas issues through B.A.T., "section 2.C - issues 1919-40" and sub section "(a) Home and Sundry issues", listed as :
EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH NAVY. Sm. 67 x 35. Nd. (50). See RB.13/62. Issued by Godfrey Phillips. ... ZB5-2.
Actually they are also listed in that volume under Godfrey Phillips, between "Empire Industries" and "Famous Boys", but without a card code, it only says :
EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH NAVY. Anonymous - see Set ZB5-2
The updated World Tobacco Issues Index says the same for both entries, with the exception of the removal of the RB.13 code.
That missing RB.13 code is a trail to our original Godfrey Phillips reference book, published in 1949, which is obviously how it was known for the World Tobacco Issues Index that they were the issuers. This reads
62. 50 EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH NAVY. Small cards, size 67 x 35 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs per Fig 12 in grey-black ; Phillips` name does not appear on the cards which are thus anonymous. Issued 1930.
It is probably also why they do not appear in our B.A.T. reference book. I have checked now.
Monday, 22nd July 2024
This amazing part monochrome and part colour card shows us marine life below the sea, and a seaside image above, both linking the two together, and also saying, look what you are missing out on your trips to the seashore.
Many thanks to Mr. Sparks for this card, and also for telling us that the rest of the set are just as beautifully coloured, and a delight to look at. The little monochrome vignettes also differ on each card. A double treat.
However he does take issue with the given title, because the octopus and starfish are not plants. He much prefers "At the Seaside", because the vignettes show a land view and the coloured pictures reveal what is going on beneath the sea, out of their view.
Now do note that many dealers and cataloguer, including chromo.be, split the set into two, often calling them A and a B.
This set consists of :
- Actinia Mesembryaleum - the common smooth anemone - two children poking a bucket in the water (B)
- Actinoloba Dianthus - sea anemone - a girl and boy with a bucket (A)
- Anthea Virides (wrong on the card - it is Viridis) - snakelocks anemone - a couple in the rain run for cover beneath an umbrella (B)
- Argonauta Argo - greater argonaut octopus - girl striding up beach with boat behind (A)
- Bunodes Gemmacea - gem anemone - a lady in a cap and bathing dress, two people behind (B)
- Citopus Vulgaris - common octopus - beach hut and people hidden beneath umbrellas (A)
- Corallium Rubrum - red coral, or precious coral - a straw hatted boy fishing from a jetty (B)
- Cucumaria Doliolum - a sea cucumber which seems to have no other name - a lady looking into the distance (B)
- Echinaster Sepositus - orange finger starfish - a boy and girl leaning against a pear which stretches into the distance (A)
- Psammechinus Microtubercu - green sea urchin - four children watching boats come in (A)
- Rhizostoma Cuvieri - barrel jellyfish - two boys digging in the sand (B)
- Tealia Crassicornis - mottled anemone - boy and girl riding donkeys (A)
All the backs are identical.
Tuesday, 23rd July 2024
Here we have the "Sea Fan" Coral, which the card tells us is "the beautiful skeleton of a colony of marine animals". We also learn from the text that it is in the same family, anthozoa, as the Sea-Anemones, this one being Anthozoa Gorgonia, one of the sea-whip corals, and quite soft to the touch. The text tells us that it "...is quite common off the British coasts, where it is found in 10-25 fathoms of water."
I could not find another of these anywhere on cards, but I have now been told that card 25/48 of Brooke Bond Canada`s "Exploring the Ocean - Explorons L`Ocean" (issued in 1971) shows a selection of corals, including elk horn, sea whip, stinging coral, gorgonia, star coral and brain coral.
Although it does not show our coral, instead picking to showcase a more utilitarian, pipe-like coral, of the Madrepore sort, card 14/25 of W.A. & A.C. Churchman`s "Nature`s Architects" tells us a lot more about corals, including that they "...are of four main classes; the branching corals ... and the massive corals, both of which types play such an important part in the formation of coral reefs ; single corals, and the familiar red coral used as beads, etc. These beautiful objects are really "skeletons" formed by the coral-polyps from carbonate of lime, extracted from the sea water, the pitted appearance of the type illustrated being due to the mouths of the numerous cells in which the coral polyps formerly lived."
The same Madrepore coral appears on another card by W.D. & H.O. Wills, namely No.15 of "Do You Know" second series, issued in 1924 - this card telling of how the coral reef is formed - as well as on Ching`s "Do You Know", card No.11, again "How coral is formed", issued in 1962. That last one was also issued as a trade card, by Tonibell ice cream, but a year later in 1963.
That is all I have been able to track down so far.
We first encounter our set in part IV of our original Wills reference booklets, where it is described as :
349. 50 WONDERS OF THE SEA. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Issued 1928.
A. Home issue. Wills` name and I.T.C. Clause at base of back.
B. General Overseas issue. Anonymous backs. Two grades of board, (a) white (b) cream.
In both our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, the text has reduced to simply :
WONDERS OF THE SEA. Sm. Nd. (50). See W/349.A
However the anonymous version is stoved off to the back of the book, coded as ZB07-905 in the updated version, and ZB6-83 in the original.
Wednesday, 24th July 2024
Here we have a jelly-fish, or, more properly, a sea jelly, because they are not related to fish in any way. However they definitely are a kind of jelly, being wet, and sticky, and quiver in motion as a jelly does when moved. They are found in almost every area of the world, and in all types of waters, at all kinds of depths. There are also many different types, but most swim, though a few remain happily tethered to the sea bed for their entire lives. They swim by moving the circular bell shaped part of their body which propels them through the water, but their hanging tentacles are nothing to do with this, they are to ward off attackers and to capture food.
Strangely, they have no blood, no hearts, and no brains, but they are made of three complex layers, the outer "skin", the inner "jelly", and the central stomach.
They also have a curious lifecycle, starting with the stage we see here, which is an adult. The female adult releases their eggs into the water to be fertilised by the male adult. The eggs that are fertilised then float about until they hit something hard, and then they stick firmly to it, slowly transforming into a small bump which a lot of people mistake for a sea anemone. Then their tentacles start to grow so that they can catch and eat tiny plankton as it floats by. Now for the really odd bit, as if there is not enough food they can stop growing entirely, and their systems can remain alive but in an inanimate state for many years, until the food supply starts floating past again. I do not know how they know this has happened, but they do. Once they have enough food, they start to grow into long tall tubes constructed of separate compartments, and every now and then the top few compartments will detach and float off, quickly learning to swim, finding areas where the food is even more plentiful, and growing into the stage we see here, ready to release their eggs.
The sea jelly on our card is a drymonema, a true jellyfish, which has its own family, the Drymonematidae. There are only three species: D. Dalmatinum, D. Gorgo, and D. Larsoni, - and they are found in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, which join together, and in the Mediterranean, which is miles apart.
The first thing I noticed on this card is that the order of the names has changed, the other sets we have featured have been "Peter, Cailler, Kohler, & Nestlé" - but here Nestlé is first. I have been in correspondence with a European collector and he has supplied a bit of background on the four names - which you can read on the page for our Card of the Day for the 29th of December 2022. That ends by saying that the cards with Peter coming first ended in 1951, so this must be later - and that could also be the reason why the numbering system has changed from Roman numerals.
Now it turns out that our card is a re-issue, because I have now been shown the exact front but with a different numbering system, "Serie LXIV" and "No.2" - and the top of that card says "Peter, Cailler, Kohler, & Nestlé".
They were also issued with just the name of Cailler`s Milk Chocolate, as Series XXXVI, in which case the "Faune Sous Marine" is in the top border and the firm name in the black cartouche within the bottom of the picture.
The cards in this set, which are the same all of the above versions, are :
- Hyalonema (Sponge) - and - Ophiomusium (Brittle Star)
- Drymonema (jelly fish) - and - Umbellula (Sea Pen)
- Stylaster (Hydro Coral) - and - Euplectella (Glass Sponge)
- Neniechthys (Snipe Eel) - and - Macropharynx (Large Pelican Eel)
- Stomias (Barbeled Dragon Fish)
- Eurypharynx (Pelican Eel)
- Cenhoseymnus (Sleeper Shark)
- Malacostens (Dragon Fish)
- Melanocetus (Black Sea Devil)
- Centrophorus (Deep Water Shark)
- Macrurus (Grenadier)
- Bathypterois (Tripod Fish)
The names in italics are not on the card, but I needed a distraction and so worked them out. Hopefully rightly, but do let me know if I erred.
Thursday, 25th July 2024
The shells shown here are the Penhoorn (Auger Shell), Fuikhoorn (Nasarius?), Purperslak (Dog Whelk) and Sepiaschelp (Cuttlefish)
This is a curious set, because it is identical to the Liebig set issued in 1950, catalogued as S.1489 or F.1489, and titled "Shells of Our Sea Shore" (1950) - or in Dutch "Schelpen van ons Kust" - or in French "Coquillages de Notre Littoral". However if you look closely at our card the title is just "Schelpen", and, in the box in the bottom right hand corner, beneath the Liebig signature, there is an "OXO".
Liebig was founded in 1856 by a man called Justus von Liebig, who developed a way to make concentrated meat extract. In England it was called LEMCO, which came from the initials of Liebig Extract [of] Meat Company. The first cards were issued in 1872, a black and white set of sixteen cards called "Vue des Fabriques à Fray Bentos" (Views of the Fray Bentos Factory). OXO came along in 1899, it was a liquid, and quite expensive, but Liebig knew that those who could least afford it needed it most, to make their children strong and healthy, and so he set about a way to make it cheaper without reducing the nourishment. It took a while but in 1910 he was able to offer the first cubes of OXO that worked out at a penny each.
If anyone can supply us some facts about these Liebig OXO cards, we would be most interested - there must have been others too but when did they start, and end ?
We do know that in 1934, OXO issued a set of cards entitled "British Cattle", so I will have a look at those later today in the trade indexes, and see if they give any clues.
Friday, 26th July 2024
This card shows a Bird`s Nest Sponge, slightly mis-named as the size of the hollow top structure can also be tall like a chimney. I say this, but they are never more than ten inches tall. They were first discovered in 1869 and named Pheronema Carpenteri, so this card was only issued about thirty years after, and would almost certainly have been one of the first times that the general public ever saw one. However it seems that Player call it Pheromena Grazi, which I cannot find anywhere. Maybe a reader can enlighten me there.
These are not a rare species, in fact it is said that they are the most plentiful of all sponges - and they inhabit a large area of varied waters, the deep Atlantic Ocean, the heat of the Mediterranean Sea, and the cold waters around Iceland.
However whilst this fine specimen is free floating, they usually live right on the bottom of the sea floor, sunk deep amidst the mud. And so we know very little about them, not even basic facts, like how and what they eat, how they reproduce, what they do with their days, or how long their lives are.
As for the ghostly "tentacles" which hang beneath, they are thought to be simply a way of fastening themselves to the mud
The set first appears in our original John Player reference book, RB.17, issued in 1950. It turns out to be a more complex issue than I had thought, and the cataloguing reads :
200. WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs with descriptive text. .
A. Backs in blue. Home issue, August 1904. Variety : No. 23 (Lobster) - caption at (a) top (b) base
B. Backs in black. See Introduction "Series with Black Backs"
Shame I did not know about the lobster card until now, but this week has been a kind and gentle one, lots of soft floaty things, I am not sure a lobster would have fitted in.
Let us start with the last section of the listing, which appears in the front of the booklet as :
Series with Black Backs.
In the case of items 65 [Cries of London 2nd Series], 133 [Napoleon], 155 [Products of the World, scenes only], and 200 [our set], printings of the series are found with black backs.
No concrete information is known as to the origin of these printings, and the cards may be un-issued proofs. As all the series bear the I.T.C. Clause, they would if issued regularly have been used for circulation in the United Kingdom. The quantities found, however, appear to point against issue at home. Most of the cards seen are not machine cut and many can be traced back to the printers.
In the absence of definite information as to issue, the printings have been cross referenced in the text to this paragraph , and appear in the summary under "F - Miscellaneous"
By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index it is listed as simply :
WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.17/200.A and H.365. ... P72-55
And not much changes in our updated version, where the text reads :
WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Sm. Nd. (50). Back in blue. See H.365. ... P644-120
I was not sure what is in H.365, but it turned out to be rather amazing, namely :
H.365. WONDERS OF THE DEEP. (titled series). Fronts in colour. Series of 50.
Pre 1918 - Player - Numbered.
A. Backs in blue.
B. Backs in black - may be a proof issue.
Trade - Kardomah Tea - unnumbered. Based on the Player issue, but with the subject at No.33
(The Scorpion Shell) substituted with The Hermit Crab.
Two miniature sizes:- A. 47 x 35 m/m B. 54 x 40 m/m.
So now I have had time to look at the trade indexes and tell you all about that Kardomah issue. I still do not know why the Scorpion Shell was ousted in favour of the Hermit Crab, and I would be very interested.
However, what I have discovered is that the Kardomah issue is listed in our updated British Trade Index , and that it was not the only John Player set to be used by them as the basis for another set. The listing reads :
Back B [ "KARDOMAH" TEAS are unsurpassed! Without "Full weight ...." clause. Subject in small capitals. "42 Dale Street, Liverpool", without "For Home"]
Size a) 47 x 35 b) 54 x 40. Coloured half-tones, caption on back only. Unnd. (100). Two issues. ... KAR-040
1. Wild Animals (A) Unnd (50). Based on set issued by Player, see British Tobacco Handbook H.77. See HX-216
2. Wonders of the Deep (A) Unnd (50). Designs mainly based on set issued by Player, see P644-120 (Tobacco Index). See HK-4
Well there you go. I never thought I would get that done. I only did the last card this afternoon, and started working on the text at 6 p.m., though I had written some of it, in fits and starts, on Wednesday and Thursday.
The first half of the week was used by mum deciding to go out without telling anyone just after lunchtime on Monday and not resurfacing until late Tuesday afternoon when she knocked on the door of what used to be her mum`s house six miles away. We - and I include the police here, who were amazingly helpful - have no idea how she got there, or what she did overnight on Monday into Tuesday.
The rest of the week has been spent with me following her about like a shadow to make sure she does not do it again, because, apparently, once this stage starts it becomes a regular occurrence.
Despite that you did get a newsletter, and tomorrow the card codes and entries from the reference books will slide neatly into place.
It is now 00.50, so I consider that a result. Not only that but a result worthy of buying myself a present, which I intend to do as soon as I can see the numbers on my bank card.
Before that I will snuggle down next to nipper, and listen, just in case I hear a wanderer.